


Traditions

by ssrhpurgatory



Series: Academic AU [2]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, F/M, Warring academics got married and produced a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:35:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21744637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssrhpurgatory/pseuds/ssrhpurgatory
Summary: Set in an AU where Volgograd didn’t happen and Dmitri Vologin winds up in academia instead of doing sketchy experiments for the government/Goddard. Started as a mix of sketchy comics (which can be found linked as a related work) and a bunch of text snippets that I’ve been trying to hack into something reasonable, posted on its own because it can kinda stand on its own and is seasonally appropriate. 1000-ish words of nonsense domestic fluff with a very different AU Hilbert.
Relationships: Alexander Hilbert/Original Female Character
Series: Academic AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1592503
Kudos: 2





	Traditions

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Warring academics au sketch comics](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/541471) by Me. 



They had had their first snow a few weeks ago, and now Dmitri was thinking about Christmas.

He had never been much of one for Christmas—well, he had never been religious, had he?—but that hadn’t stopped him from picking up just a little bit of Christmas spirit over the years, if only by cultural osmosis. But Christmas was only a week and a half away, and Rosemary had not mentioned any traditions of her own.

Of course, Rosemary still had not quite recovered since Marya’s birth. Postpartum depression, the obstetrician had said. And while Dmitri was not too worried about Rosemary, not when all of her graduate students had decided as a group that they were going to adopt Marya as their own and make sure Rosemary had all the support she needed during these rough first months, Rosemary still wasn’t quite herself.

But perhaps Christmas would help.

Dmitri got home to find the house full of the smell of a baking lasagne—one of the meals contributed to the household by one of Rosemary’s grad students, no doubt—and found Rosemary in the kitchen, dozing in a chair, Marya strapped to her chest in a baby sling. Every bit of parenting advice other people had given them had said to leave the baby in their crib to sleep, but both he and Rosemary had ignored that advice, preferring to keep their daughter close by while they went about other tasks.

He bent to press a kiss to Rosemary’s neck. “Good evening, lyubov moya.”

Rosemary blinked sleepily and smiled up at him. “Hello, you. How was your day?”

Dmitri sighed. “Long. Am glad to be home with my two favorite people.”

Rosemary snorted. “I’ll be sure to tell Olga that her niece outranks her now. But at least the semester is almost over.”

“Mm.” Dmitri hummed noncommittally and went to put the kettle on. “Tea?”

“Mint with honey would be lovely.” Rosemary had gone off caffeine entirely while pregnant, and her tolerance had shrunk down to almost nothing these days.

“What do you normally do for Christmas?” Dmitri asked as he prepared the mugs.

“I… I don’t normally do much, to be honest.” Rosemary sounded confused. “Why?”

“Was simply wondering what American Christmas traditions are like,” Dmitri said, turning to face her and leaning back against the counter.

“Well, let’s see. A lot of people decorate trees, there are always Christmas services if you’d like them—I think there’s a Russian Orthodox church downtown, if you’re interested?” Dmitri shook his head, and Rosemary continued. “Then there are holiday parties, and I normally go to a few, but with Marya I’m not sure… I mean, I don’t even fit into any of my party dresses any more, anyway, and it’s way too much work to go shopping for a new one, at least before my weight stabilizes.” Rosemary looked down at her chest with a bit of chagrin.

“Do you do anything with your mother?”

Rosemary shook her head. “Well, I always pop by the nursing home to exchange gifts, but they’ve usually got events of their own going on there, so really over the past few years that’s been it.”

Dmitri frowned. “Does that mean you normally spend Christmas alone?”

Rosemary appeared to be considering for a moment, then nodded. “I suppose so. Though I usually go to enough parties that it doesn’t feel lonely, you know.”

It sounded lonely to Dmitri. Even on the years when he and Olga had not made it to Volgograd for Christmas, they had had each other. “How would you like to decorate Christmas tree this year?” he asked.

Rosemary laughed a little. “Goodness, whatever for? It’ll only sit in the living room going brown and dropping needles everywhere until one of us finally manages to wrestle it down to the curb.”

The kettle whistled just then, and Dmitri busied himself with pouring the tea. “It is Marya’s first Christmas,” he said as he prodded the tea bags down into the hot water with a spoon. “Should make it a good one.”

“Marya is only two months old. She just barely counts as sentient,” Rosemary said, a tinge of confusion in her voice. “I doubt she’ll be disappointed if her first Christmas isn’t all it could be.”

Dmitri sighed, looking down at the mugs. “It… it is our first Christmas together,” he said, wrenching the words out of himself, a confession he had not expected to make, not to a woman who stubbornly insisted there was no reason for him to tie himself down in marriage to a woman ten years his senior even if they did have a daughter together. “I would like to make it ours.”

There was a heavy silence, and he turned to see tears pouring down Rosemary’s cheeks.

“Oh, lyubov moya.” Dmitri left the mugs on the counter and went over to kneel at Rosemary’s side.

“Sorry,” Rosemary said in a wet-sounding voice, reaching up to swipe tears away from her face. “Sorry.”

Marya started fussing as Rosemary wiped the tears away, evidently waking up from her nap, and Dmitri pulled his daughter out of the baby sling and bounced her gently in his arms, looking away from Rosemary, giving her a moment to collect herself. After a long moment, he heard a deep breath from Rosemary.

“I’m… I’m just not used to having someone around who wants to… wants to build something new with me,” Rosemary said softly, reaching out and running her fingers through Dmitri’s hair. “I keep expecting you to decide I’m too…. Too much. Too hard. Too old. Too everything. And then you’ll be out the door in an instant.”

Dmitri looked up at Rosemary, trying to put all the love he felt for this difficult, amazing woman in his face. From the little gasp of breath she let out when she met his eye, he hoped that he had succeeded. “I think I fell in love with you ten years ago, when you first wrote scathing letter to the editor about one of my papers. If a decade of fighting over research has not scared me away yet, nothing will.”

Rosemary laughed through her tears, and Marya started screaming.

“And now, if you do not mind, I believe our little warrior princess needs a fresh diaper.”

“Time for me to get started on the garlic bread, in any case,” Rosemary said. “But first…”

Before Dmitri could get to his feet, Rosemary leaned down and pressed a warm kiss to his mouth.

“We’ll talk about starting our own Christmas traditions over dinner?”

Dmitri felt a broad, delighted smile cover his face. “For us,” he said.

Rosemary smiled back. “For us.”


End file.
